


Hello  and Goodbye

by amuk



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Community: 31_days, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Gen, Loss, Old Age, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 08:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/648394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her hands have waved goodbye more times than she can count.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hello  and Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I've written for this fandom. I think I should expand a little more toward the end--I'll have to relook this fic later and fix that.
> 
> Day/Theme: Dec. 11 // even though your heart is breaking

"It's dawn," she whispers, her voice dissipating like the morning dew. In front of them, the sand glows a light pink, scaly as the serpents that prowl the land. In the distance he can see the ruins--the two towers he knows all too well.  
  
"I know."  
  
She leans against him, her body warm in the cool air. Her balcony has always had the best view of the land, of her city and its people. Already shopkeepers are setting up shop, stalls opening for business as the scent of freshly baked goods wafts through the streets. Another day has begun.  
  
And Syaoran knows he won't see it end. Already Kurogane and Fai are packing in their rooms, their meager possessions filling the small bags they sling over their shoulders.  
  
"You can't stay?" It's not the plead it used to be, the first few times he visited. Just the quiet strength he has come to associate with her, the steel that keeps her going when her memories are all she has left.  
  
Rue filled his voice as he spoke, his arm curling around her thin shoulders. "It's been too long as it is." Were her shoulders always this small, this thin? It's hard to remember, in the months and years that pass between visits. Even her voice is a passing dream at times, her face the only solace he has.  
  
Relaxing, she closes her eyes as she sinks into his embrace. "I see." There is grey streaking her pink hair, a strange colour he can't get accustomed to.  
  
Time doesn't run straight between worlds. There are loops and zigzags, disconnections between places they visit and have yet to visit. It runs straighter now that his mistake (no, not a mistake, Mokona reminded him countless times. A mistake would mean their friendship was one, that his feelings were another) was fixed.  
  
Just not straight enough that he can't visit the past and the future of this land of sand and heat.  
  
"Tell him goodbye for me," he murmurs into her hair, the thin scent of oil and incense tickling his nose.  
  
She laughs at his words, reverberating against his body as she does so. "He'll be angry his father left without waiting for him." A sigh now, as she stills, watching the twilight dissolve into the coming dawn. "Be careful."  
  
"I will."  
  
"Take care of them."  
  
"I will."  
  
"I'm sure you'll find them."  
  
He closes his eyes now, remorseful. "I'm sorry." His hands contrast deeply against her wrinkled ones, age apparent in each finger.  
  
"I don't regret it." There is nothing else to say and he cradles her in his arms as the stars die out.  
  
He has seen Sakura old and withered, Sakura young and playful. There is a sick Sakura, a wild Sakura, a Sakura for each season and each age and he only gets to have one picture of her for each chapter of her life. Only one before it’s on the road once more, hunting for phantoms that won't be found.  
  
As he pulls her close, he thinks it has to be enough, that one day he'll come across their path. He doesn't know how he can survive otherwise.


End file.
